For Rout From Sam Hartman, Notre Dame, Tennessee State Made Bad Deal

Not only are the Fighting Irish 2-0 after they did the inevitable at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday in South Bend, Indiana with a 56-3 pounding of undermanned and overmatched Tennessee State, but they did so at a bargain price.

Just $1 million.

Wait . . . what?

“We’re not coming in wild or wide eyed. We knew coming in that this was going to be a hard-fought battle,” said Tennesee State coach Eddie George, the College Football Hall of Famer who crushed Notre Dame at Ohio State for his 1995 Buckeyes by rushing for 207 yards and three touchdowns along the way to a 45-25 victory and the Heisman Trophy.

Now, at 49, and in his third year at Tennessee State following a 9-13 start during his first try ever at coaching, George only can help his players these days with his tongue instead of his legs.

Too bad he can’t go back to the future.

The Tigers were so much the lesser team on this toasty sun-splattered afternoon that Notre Dame pulled extraordinary quarterback Sam Hartman (a rushing touchdown while competing 14 of 17 passes for 194 yards and two more TDs) at halftime and reached for the backups to the backups.

Earlier in the week, George told HBCU Gameday that facing Notre Dame would serve as a “great learning experience” for Tennessee State. It added to the speculation that the Tigers wish to leave the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) someday to join the big boys of the sport by using the Notre Dame game somehow to help them upgrade their roster along with their facilities.

That’s nice, but the question still lingers: What was Tennessee State thinking? George and his bosses only got $1 million in the spring of 2022 when they agreed to become the first football team from a historically black college and university (HBCU) or the FCS to play Notre Dame?

Yes, I know. Notre Dame will pay the Tigers more than what they got from their previous five opponents from the Football Bowl Subdvision.

It’s still just $1 million.

All Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman knew — after seven different Irish players scored touchdowns, and after his defense kept a second foe out of the end zone in as many weeks to start the season, and after Hartman became an early Heisman Trophy contender — was that he became a part of instant Black history.

“To be the first team to play, not only an FCS opponent and HBCU, it’s really important,” said Freeman to me and other reporters during his post-game press conference, referring to “the first” Notre Dame team since its foootball program began in 1887. “It’s humbling, especially being an African-American head coach. This is what you want for college football. As I told coach George after the game, I’m honored to be part of this game.”

As for Tennessee State, there were few positives.

Two come to mind.

Even though the overwhelming majority of the 77,622 spectators bled Notre Dame blue and gold, they ignored the fact that their school had the world’s first marching band, and they spent halftime hugging the “Aristocrat of Bands” of the visitors doing a highly energetic tribute to hip hop’s 50th year.

Tennessee State also nearly took the lead at the end of the first quarter, but it only was a mirage for a team that eventually finished with less than 100 yards rushing (89) and passing (67). The Tigers even struggled against those backups to Notre Dame’s backups, and they did so for what?

Just $1 million?

To be fair, Tennessee State did demand payment from the Irish within 6o days after the end of the game.

No problem for the guys with a Golden Dome.

In addition, the Irish owned an eighth-place ranking by Statista.com among the richiest U.S. colleges in fiscal year 2021 with an endowment fund market value at $18.07 billion. They also watched Forbes.com determine in 2019 that they pocketed an average revenue of $120 million per season over the three-year period just before the pandemic.

Even so, with Notre Dame heading for another season of reaching the College Football Playoff or finishing in the vicinity, what’s wrong with this picture for a Tennessee State program more accustomed to meeting the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Norfolk State and Lindenwood?

Glad you asked.

According to Forbes.com, Notre Dame will pay Central Michigan $1.2 million (you know, $200,000 more than Tennessee State) to travel to South Bend in two weeks for a slaughter after those same Chippewas received $1.75 million for Friday night’s 31-7 whipping at Michigan State.

There also was Saturday night at Auburn, where UMass lost 59-14 on the field, but won at the bank with the $1.95 million the Minutemen are slated to collect from their SEC foe as compensation.

To save you the math, that’s nearly double Tennessee State’s paycheck after a rougher trip to Notre Dame.

So what if Central Michigan and UMass don’t fall into the HBCU or FCS categories in these cases? When the big boys play the Tennessee States of the game, the victories (and the losses) count as much as they do against anybody else.

The Tigers got robbed — not by Notre Dame, but by themselves when they didn’t insist on more during their negoatiations with the world’s most famous college football program.

Then again, the Tennessee State team buses did get a wonderful police escort to the airport.